The present invention relates to a sports ball display mechanism, such as for conventional footballs and basketballs, where the mechanism is intended to allow fill viewing of the sports ball, and for its easy removal for handling and sharing. Too often, typical display devices for sports balls are static displays which allow for limited angle viewing and/or no simple means for handling the sports ball. There are several of these static display devices as reflected in the following U.S. Patents:
a.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,829 to Bahl, teaches a football display case comprising a base in a rectangular configuration having an upper surface and a lower surface, the base being sanded, stained and finished with polyurethane; a piece of plywood in a rectangular configuration having an upper and lower surface and glued at its lower surface to the upper surface of the base; a piece of artifical turf in a rectangular configuration having an upper surface and a lower surface and glued at its lower surface to the upper surface of the plywood, where the piece of turf has a length and width essentially the same as that of the plywood. Four apertures are formed in the base, plywood and turf in a rectangular configuration. Four dowels are located in the apertures to an extent upwardly for holding a football on the dowels; and an oak frame resting on the base. The frame further includes a rectangular upper section with an external periphery greater than the plywood and turf but less than the base, the frame also including four vertical posts coupled at their upper ends to the rectangular upper section at its comers and resting at its lower ends upon the turf and base. PA1 b.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,485, to Alton, discloses a display device for organizing, storing and displaying a series of autographed baseballs or the like, and comprises a series of stacked shelves wherein each shelf is made up of a series of circular disc elements that reversibly engage and disengage to adjacent center shelf elements and/or end shelf elements such that the entire display device pivots about the center axis of the stack of disc elements. In this manner, a structurally stable display device that can be configured in a variety of positions and can be expanded as the number of items being displayed increase. PA1 c.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,231,993, to Levy, is directed to an ornamental portable trophy, more particularly, to an authentic oblate-ellipsoidal football the surface of which is autographed, and an attractive stand which is functionally designed and structurally adapted to effectually present and display the football. PA1 d.) U.S. Pat. No. 1,124,896, to Hartman, relates to a cradling device for displaying a ball, where the three legs of the device are configured like a baseball bat, and they are angled to form a tripod arrangement for cradling the ball therebetween. PA1 a.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,253, to Abdalla, teaches a geographical globe with an information base comprising an orb-shaped model assembly of the earth. A base member supports the orb-shaped model assembly. A structure in the base member supplies data about different countries on each continent of the earth. PA1 b.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,695, to Kinner, relates to a device for controlling the direction of rotation of a world globe. The device has a ratchet ring which is affixed to the globe near the North or South Pole thereof. A deflectable pawl member is held by the support fame of the globe and permits the globe to rotate only so that its surface moves eastwardly. PA1 c.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,281,961, to Tiddens, is directed to a globe structure comprising a meridian support, a world globe ball, means for rotatably carrying the globe ball on the support for rotation of the globe ball about the polar axis thereof, a base, means for rotatably mounting the support on the base, a shutter selectively movably carried on the base, a question set movable with the shutter, a plurality of answer sets on the base observable selectively as a result of the selective movement of the shutter on the base, the answer sets being registered with the question sets on the shutter, and the answer sets including answers referring to geographical designations, indicia on the base corresponding to preselected geographical positions on the world globe ball, aligning indicia means on the shutter for indicating the position of the shutter for viewing a selected one of the answer sets corresponding to a selected one of the geographical area indicia, indicia on the world globe ball corresponding to geographical designations in the answer sets, and indicia on the world globe ball corresponding to the geographical position indicia on the base. PA1 d.) U.S. Pat. No. 2,368,347, to Colberg, relates to a geographical globe mounting means. Specifically, the invention thereof is directed to the meridian for holding the globe, where the meridian is constructed by rolling resilient flat steel wire edgewise and preferably with a curvature such that when the globe is mounted in place on the meridian, the latter exerts an inward force on the globe to secure the two in assembled relation.
Prior art unrelated to sports memorabilia, such as sports balls, are the portable and rotatable globe devices so often found in classrooms as a tool used for teaching geography and history. These devices typically mount a globe featuring the geographical areas of the earth, and are fixed within the device for rotation about the North and South Poles. Prior art which reflect such devices are found in the following U.S. Patents:
While the prior art above represents diverse fields of use for static displays of sports balls, and geographic globes, where the present invention selects from features of each, they do not teach or suggest the unique combination hereof for a rotatable and releasable sports ball display. The uniqueness of this invention will become apparent in a reading of the following description, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.